Merrill Lynch has sold its stake in Bloomberg LLP for $4.5 billion, CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino is reporting. No deal has yet been made for Merrill’s stake in Blackrock.
Merrill has been under pressure to raise additional capital. But with investors in recent rounds of equity sales still stinging from sagging share prices and Merrill wary of alienating shareholders with further stock dilution, the company has reportedly turned to asset sales. Others on Wall Street have followed a similar pattern. Citigroup, for instance, recently sold its German assets to raise capital.
Gasparino says that Merrill has sold other assets as well but will not sell any part of the Blackrock stake. The deal will be announced tomorrow, Gasparino reports.
The reports of asset sales have widely been read as telegraphing another major write-down at Merrill, which some say as high as $6.5 billion.
(We’ve been reporting a lot of news from CNBC lately. We apologize for how excellent they’ve been and promise to resume making fun of them and objectifying their women as soon as possible. Someone at Bloomberg has to be cursing themselves right now that they didn’t get this scoop.)

Comments (33)

  1. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:12 PM

    Merrill Lynch will sell it’s stake in Bloomberg LLP for $4.5 *million, CNBC’s is reporting Charlie Gasparino. No deal has yet been made for Merrill’s stake in Blackrock.
    *Billion, with a B, I assume…

  2. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:13 PM

    $4.5 million…..wow that’s not going to do ML much help

  3. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:14 PM

    $4.5 million for Bloomberg LLP? I can see why Carney is no longer a lawyer.

  4. Posted by DrederickTatum | July 16, 2008 at 4:17 PM

    So just how bad is Merrill’s number going to be tomorrow? Any guesses?

  5. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:17 PM

    lol, its not just peanuts it’s planters, and i believe as 412 said billion is spelled with a ‘b’

  6. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:25 PM

    it’s = “it is” or “it has”
    its = possessive of “it”

  7. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:26 PM

    yeah everyone knows that. get over yourselves – it’s a typo.

  8. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:30 PM

    As typo’s go, that’s a pretty big one. Considering this blog is largely trafficed by finance guys, that is kind of a screaming red flag.
    Flashbacks of a managing director losing his shit…

  9. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:33 PM

    Zero chance on this planet, even with a comet strike to NYC, would MER sell Bloomy for 4.5 MM, the only person who could think it was 4.5 MM, would be a copy editor from the WSJ…
    If anyone on this Street of ours thought it was actually sold for 4.5 MM, and they still have a job, please just identify your Brokerage house of employment and we will get busy looking for shares to short now that the herd has covered…

  10. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:37 PM

    @4:30, trafficed = trafficked.. now we’re even
    -417
    ps i was born in 1991, im thinkin of joining merrill straight out of high school baby

  11. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:42 PM

    Typo? In this market who knows. Just like everyone thought $2 per share was a typo.

  12. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:45 PM

    lol, dude most of us could prob buy it ourselves at that price… no way it was anything but a Typo… but then I road bear from 65 to 3…
    and gave it all back as I held the rest of the basket… until the market fell out and we road them back down…
    today did suck a bit though…

  13. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:48 PM
  14. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:48 PM

    @4:37 just goes to my point, typos that matter and typos that don’t matter.

  15. Posted by John Carney | July 16, 2008 at 4:51 PM

    I have explained before that I think the rule of not using an apostrophe for the possessive in the case of “it” is an error. It’s simply ridiculous that we use the apostrophe to indicate the possessive with names but not with things. I’m doing my best to correct this linguistic mistake on the part of the rest of the English speaking world.

  16. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:54 PM

    Hear hear, Carney.
    If I may be so bold, could you also work on the whole “Bess’s” thing.
    That’s just fucked up.

  17. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:55 PM

    -417 do you plan on sending all your e-mails at merrill twice?

  18. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:55 PM

    I see what you did there, Carney.
    So did the rest of the macaroons on this thread.
    Lastly, born in 1991…good god that’s a sobering thought. Why are you posting to DB instead of sucking down beers behind the football field? Weirdo.

  19. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 4:58 PM

    Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

  20. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM
  21. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:00 PM

    i think most of us got it at “Merrill”…

  22. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:02 PM

    @4:55 I’ve met a few of those finance from age 16 types, they are usually the first to burn out. Like those all gung-ho for war guys who end up pissing themselves the first day of action.
    Go play outside and try to sleep with 16 year old girls. You are going to miss that soon.

  23. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:05 PM

    aren’t you guys supposed to be working?
    -417 (1991… Giants baby)

  24. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:07 PM

    @ 4:45 – I agree.
    @ Drederick – Not sure. But I wont worry about that until friday. How good do you think JPM #’s will be?

  25. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:10 PM

    fact:
    Marky Mark dedicated his autobiography “Marky Mark” to his dick.
    It did not win a Pulitzer Prize.

  26. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:13 PM

    @4:55
    1) It’s called an iphone
    2) Sucking down beers… whose the weirdo.. Was it that enjoyable watching your bros sweat it out?
    3) Luthor Vandross . (period)
    4) Carney is loyal to his viewers, even responds to complete BS. Respeck.
    -417

  27. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:15 PM

    responds to complete BS with complete BS.

  28. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 5:24 PM

    4:58 Random, but LOL.

  29. Posted by beentheredonethat | July 16, 2008 at 6:52 PM

    @5:13
    Respeck. LOL. Go to YouTube and Watch Ali G interview the Beckhams. Funniest 10 minutes of comedy I’ve seen in 10 years. Respeck to your bitch as well….

  30. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 8:27 PM

    I wish I had gone to Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, then maybe I would be able to pronounce nuclear.
    G.W. Bush

  31. Posted by guest | July 16, 2008 at 11:04 PM

    I wish GW Bush had been hit with a Nuclear. Just him. not the rest of us. 8 yrs ago. sigh

  32. Posted by guest | July 17, 2008 at 9:56 AM

    On a side note I saw new blackrock sheep running around on some sort of scavenger hunt in chelsea around 7pm last night.

  33. Posted by guest | July 17, 2008 at 10:24 PM

    Honestly, there are a lot of HOT women in Bloomberg News.To my surprise,in Asia where I’ve been recently, a lot of local cablers carry Bloomberg than CNBC.

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